scottstead.com

I haven’t abandoned blogging or shooting videos. I have just moved onto other things (building scooters) and other mediums to accommodate my incredibly busy life. In the mean time this blog will whither on the vine. Until the day when I feel motivated to actually update this thing you can see my photos on Flickr or Instagram. You can follow me on Facebook or Twitter. You can even check out my resume on LinkedIn. Each of these is under the same moniker, “scottstead”. Also, if you noticed all of my videos are now defunct due to Blip.tv shutting down the accounts of a lot of us early video blogger types (despite our love and support). Alas, it was a merger and ultimately a business decision that drove it. Such is life. All of my videos are archived on Youtube if there’s something you want to revisit.

Whilst in North Carolina this weekend my six year old cousin donned his favorite football uniform in honor of the mighty Tar Heels and related to me a recap of one of his favorite films, “The Little Giants”. Upon the completion of said recap, he broke down into one of his “world famous” victory dances. This is posted in the spirit of Videoblogging Week 2009, my first participation in the project. I’ve watched it fly by before and never jumped in – but I figured it was time to get involved. Thanks to Steve Garfield I decided to abandon Final Cut for a simple project and give ILife 09 a shot with the ever popular Comic Book theme. Thanks Steve and a huge thanks to everyone in the Videoblogging group for giving me yet another reason to post videos that would either wise seem inane and forever remain in my folder of unedited, unposted “stuff.”

I started making websites back in the late 90′s. My first major site was Scott’s Ska Haven. I catalogued every band, every fan site, every related piece of content to the music that I loved, that I played in a band called Tanzlokal and later Skacrates (my screen name at the time). It got a lot of traffic as far as ska sites went (at the height of the Mighyt Mighty Bosstones and Cherry Poppin’ Daddies Craze). In college I developed flash sites and diddled with java. And then I dropped it all as my TV life got larger and my web life got smaller.

At the pinnacle of my TV career – as previously mentioned in my post “10th Year Televersary” – I got roped back in by Jonny Goldstein and Andy Carvin via DC Media Makers after my interest was piqued during coverage of the 2006 Midterm Elections when we had bloggers from all over converge on Washington, D.C. at Cafe Tryst in Adams Morgan to join us in covering the event. What’s happened since then? A lot…

Jonny’s Partay
Not knowing exactly what I wanted to do, I joined Jonny Goldstein in his fight for the rights of puppies and children with Jonny’s Partay, a weekly web show (that has been hosted on a variety of services from Operator11.com, to Blog.tv, to UStream.com, and finally rested at Mogulus.com) showcasing social media types, marketing types, bloggers, vloggers, comic strip writers, life coaches, venture capitalists, a professional trampoline coach, cancer survivors and fighters, mobile (i.e. Jeff Hibbard from his truck) life casters, and a slew of others. The show was about making connections. The most incredible aspect of the show was (for example) having someone trying to start a business, and then having someone who might be a competitor of sorts in the chat throwing out suggestions to them on how to succeed, how to implement their idea, how to move forward. The spirit of the Partay, of the Partay-cipants, and the guests is just a testament to what Jonny Goldstein is really all about. He is a connector and I’m glad that I was able to connect with him and all of the people that came with him and the Partay. And now he’s moving on to Philly and we’ll just have to see what the future holds in the Post Partay Era.

Videoblogging
I really, really like making videos. What I’ve learned over the past year:

Videos of John McCain and or Barack Obama related stuff are really popular

I really like interviewing people at events. I had great fun at SXSW and the Pullver and Lijit Breakfasts.

Random videos of ET toys at 1am get a suprising number of hits on youtube.

Cell phone videos are good for “some” things – but generally suck otherwise. It’s nice to have for on the fly, but if you can carry another camera.

Interviews with Scoble, GaryVee, or Steve Garfield are always good for a few hundred views.

File under random again: people have a strange fascination with Codzilla in Boston.

All in all – if I could find a job somewhere making video for the web, be it for an organization, making show based content, or just going to conferences and interviewing people – I think I’d be happy. Thanks to all of you for some seven thousand views of the good, the beautiful, the bad, and the ugly stuff I’ve put up on this thing.

Documentary Club
This is my first attempt at building an online community. Thanks to Doc Pop for spurring this idea along with a simple blog post. I’m really enjoying the conversation that we’ve all started over there; it’s just really nice to watch content that stirs up intelligent conversation. It’s far more motivating than my usual, “So did you see what happened on that rerun of Charmed today?”

Twitter
I’m approaching 1000 followers. I will probably break it this month. Does this mean anything? Probably not. I like to think that if I have something important to say more people hear it. I like to think that in me following approximately the same amount of people (and I shockingly in one way or another have directly conversed with most of them) I am opening myself up to more conversations and dialogues, interesting links, different perspectives, and a pool of information that I would otherwise be missing (cause lord knows I don’t check my Google reader enough). I’ve forged some really great friendships with folks on there and I’m glad to have been sucked in. If you plan on going to a conference anytime soon make sure you stop on over to the TwitterWhore store and get your tee with your @yourtwitternamehere on it – so I can identify you. Seriously, a lot of you DO NOT look like your avatars (especially after the whole Manga incident of 2008).

Reviews/Beta Testing
I wrote my first review of something that I’ve beta tested recently (see “Chi.mp“. I really liked doing it. I beta test a lot of stuff. I really like writing. This just makes sense. If you’d like to me to test something for you. I will. I will be honest. Real honest. Hopefully I like your stuff. If it’s awesome I will. Nuff’ said.

Rapping/Nerdcore
I have had a lot of fun with this. Thanks Doc Pop again for fueling it. All the pistons of my creative engine are revving when I’m rapping. I have now done two. The Ze Frank Color Wars rap and the RZA Wuchess Rap Challenge. Hopefully there will be more in my future. Hopefully you like it.

Activism
I add this as the last installment to this already ridiculously long 100th post. I went to a Jesuit college. We protested a lot. We had causes. I haven’t had a real “cause” since college. I talk about things that I like and dislike, but I’d like to be more vocal about them going forward. I really enjoyed covering the SEIU McCain Protest in Virginia. I’m enjoying helping out Jason Barnett and The UpTake with their efforts in helping to bolster citizen journalism. And lately this whole Brian Conley and the Baghdad Brian 6 incident in Beijing has made me think a lot about all of the people that are using social media to fight the good fight. We all blog because we can, because we have free speech. And I’m not suggesting that we have to use it to fight for Free Speech around the world, or that we need to get arrested to prove a point – but I assume saying that we need to use it. There is a lot of stuff going on out there that doesn’t make it into the living rooms of Americans because the networks are too busy reporting fluff and regurgitating AP wires. It’s our job to use this platform, our blogs, and our voices to make sure that the ‘important’ stories still get told. That’s why I’ve gone out of my way to try and help our friends in Beijing. I hope that we all realize the amount of power and potential that we hold with these tools and these freedoms. Every bit of attention that we can bring to their situation will help get them out of detention and back to the states. If you care about human rights and free expression please Digg this article. *Steps off of soap box.*

Thank you for putting up with that rant. Thank you for reading my blog. Thank you for being a part of my community. Thank you for watching my videos. Thank you times a hundred.

Sharkey runs the bar in the basement of the 18th Ammendment on Pennsylvania on Capitol Hill. It’s truly his domain. So much so – that it’s been dubbed “Sharkey’s Playhouse”. Sharkey does a lot of weird things – from making bacon infused Vodka drinks resembling a BLT to dropping skittles into a perfectly good Budweiser. If anyone out there is an avid Simpson’s fan you’ll understand the Skittlebrau reference. For those that don’t I’ll leave it for you to look up. Thanks Sharkey – it was a sweet treat. Very kool-aid like. Oooooh yeah! After all it is sugar and water…err I mean Budweiser…same difference.Mobile post sent by scottstead using Utterz.

Thousands, yes thousands, converge on the national mall every year for one of my favorite events – HBO Presents: Screen On The Green. KFC, wine, fresh baked muffins, Triscuits and freshly baked bread are all on the menu. Puppies, children, families, staffers, college students, the old and the young have all dug out their blankets and picnic baskets, lawn chairs and bug spray to participate. Great films and the great outdoors, you truly can't beat it.

It tantalized us all as children. We have all stared at whirring fan blades for hours on end, I'm sure all of our parents would attest. . I'm approaching 30 and after a long tiring day I still collapse and look up at these things…eyes chasing…like watching clouds pass. What's the fascination? Is it just relaxing?

We all do it. Sure it's mundane. But there's a certain level of suspense and anticipation while waiting for that fresh brew to finish percolating so we can rejuve, re-caffeinate and get on with our day. This is that experience.

ca·reer /kəˈrɪər/ [kuh-reer]
–noun
1. an occupation or profession, esp. one requiring special training, followed as one’s lifework: He sought a career as a lawyer.

One’s lifework. Wow. That about sums it up. 10 years – in television – as of today. I warn you this is going to be somewhat of an autobiographical post looking at how I got here, what I’ve learned, and where I want to be 10 years from now. Ok, maybe I won’t look that far ahead, as I prefer not to, because in looking back it’ll be here before I finish this post. After all the fourth definition of career is, “a course, esp. a swift one.” That it has been.

Ten years ago today I walked, bewildered and excited at having nabbed a job at WTRF TV, Wheeling, W.V. – into the gaping maw of the TV monster that has consumed the last ten years of my life. Oh dramatics, I must’ve picked that up from the headline writers. All joking aside, I started from the bottom up. I ran camera. I pedded up and down, I trucked left and right, I zoomed, I gave the anchors their countdowns, we joked in between segments, sometimes we accidentally leaked our jokes over the air. I made a lot of friends. I bragged about my job to my friends. It was a big deal in Wheeling, population 30,000. I moved up, I ran graphics, put in the chryons, took out the chyrons, developed “looks” for different shows, I edited pieces tape to tape on DVC Pro tapes, I ran audio, I worked a lot of overtime, I had a lot of fun. But that day came where my course load in school and the amount of hours I was working went head to head – and school won out. But I couldn’t put the camera down.

For the next two years I DJ’d local bars and restaurants, weddings and private parties – all the while working freelance for the NASA Center for Educational Technologies (and carrying 21 credit hours). I had the pleasure of working along side some great folks there (Richard Cain, Matt Wolfe, etc.) making educational videos for the NASA C.E.T., promotional videos for Orrick Law Center, and documenting visits of folks like Senator Robert C. Byrd of West Virginia. It was a lot of fun being a part of the full creative process from concept, to shooting, to editing, and posting. I learned a lot and I tip my hat to the guys that showed me the ropes with lighting, non-linear editing and the likes.

And with that – I graduated. Wait, no, let’s step back a minute. I can’t help but mention how my education has influenced my love for media/film/video before I move on. My family ran a print shop out of our basement – an addition my dad built onto the house with his bare hands and the help of a neighbor with a backhoe. I remember my parents staying up working all hours of the night to get a job out the door the next day. Local high schools, businesses, Steelworkers Unions, and politicians brought their printing needs to my parents home. By the age of nine I was helping with layout and typesetting. I’d be up with my parents until pretty late typing up copy on a Xerox Memorywriter. It speaks volumes as to why I was reading on 9th grade level by the time I was in 3rd grade. My life was print making, reading, story writing, typesetting, and proofreading.

At the age of fourteen I was introduced to Pat Clutter, one of the most influential people in my life to date. A former radio and tv personality from the Ohio Valley, Pat Clutter was somewhat of a legend. He had the style and class of a 1950′s broadcaster. He’d sling words around like a yo-yo, playing with alliteration and repetition making wordplay seem like child’s play. He was an artist. And he spent the latter years of his life teaching kids like me how to be a classy radio/tv personality. He taught the radio and television program at Wheeling Park High School with a lot of love and a sense of mission. You started with the history of broadcast, right up through how to use every piece of gear, how to write, and how to speak clearly. After a few introductory classes you had a shot at being on-air talent. I was fortunate enough that he saw my passion and talent for radio and he put me on the air right away. I had a radio show at least one night a week for two years. I wrote, produced, sold ads, came up with concepts for shows, did voice overs for commercials, and most importantly hosted and hosted and hosted shows. I loved it. I craved it. It was fun and it was exciting. Pat passed away of cancer towards the end of my career at Super 92 WPHP. We all missed him. He impassioned an entire generation of aspiring TV and Radio personalities, techies, writers, and producers. I later ended up buying his DJ’ing equipment from his family. I have them to this day – they are still in use – and they carry his memory.

Jump ahead to Wheeling Jesuit University. I had a lot, and I mean a lot of great professors there. Chris Willumsen in his guru like way would walk you through a Nine Inch Nails video as though you were digesting a Hitchcock thriller – pointing out symbols and allusions to other art forms. John Whitehead (along with Chris Willumsen) backed our film club after he inspired Chas Reed, Derik Wilson and I to get it started. After walking us through film after film in his classes we wanted to continue those kinds of dialogs over popular films, art films, classics, you-name-it outside of the classroom. He not only gave us his time and guidance but his friendship and lent us his own curiosity about film/video as an art form as he’d help lead us through what kinds of questions to ask, frame-by-frame. A number of others Kahtryn Voorhees, Joe Brumble, Richard Cain, and David Hammond all, despite their departmental affiliations, saw our eagerness to adopt film into the curriculum and found ways to incorporate film adaptations and related film works into the courses, giving us another way to relate to the content. I was passionate about video and film, as were others, and they were willing to build on that to keep us engaged. I thank you all for that. You’ve made me a better writer, a better asker of questions, a better critic, and generally – a more curious and more intelligent person.

And with THAT – I graduated. Fast forward, first job out of college. The real world strikes. I jumped back into the TV gig after a year or two of free lance gigs. I had been doing video production so it was an easy transition. Time to put that English degree to work, right? After a few months of working production for WTOV TV9 in Steubenville, OH, running cameras and graphics, the LoveSAN virus hit, the newsroom and almost every computer in the building was infected. After years of inherent geekiness and playing around on the side – I set my IT gears turning and went to task. I had them back up and running in a short amount of time. And before I knew it I was an IT professional and broadcast engineer. Fortunately for me I had two great mentors at the time. Len Smith and Don Fogle walked me through the tech, the ins and outs, monitoring a waveform, building cables, checking capacitors, repairing gear and basically everything I would later use in my career at CNN Washington, D.C. In my position at WTOV you never knew what you were going to end up supporting, installing, or building. I did voice overs for commercials, I cut them over completely from tape to tape editing to nonlinear Avid systems, installed Parker Vision Television automation, saw 14 presidential candidate visits in the valley, engineered live football games and country music concerts that were the scale of pro football games, and filled in at every spot imaginable in a broadcast TV facility. It was a great learning experience and then I got the call.

After only two weeks of having a resume on Monster.com I received a call from a recruiter from a major news organization asking how soon I could come for an interview. I happened to be traveling to Washington D.C. to visit family, so I did. Two weeks later I had a job supporting shows watched by millions of people. It was exciting. It was unbelievable. And here I sit – at my keyboard on the 10th floor with one of those shows about to start. It’s been an amazing ride. In the past two and a half years here I’ve been through two State of the Union speaches, one Presidential funeral, an insane amount of campaign coverage, YouTube debates, live blogger coverage of a midterm election, natural disasters of immense scale, political scandals, celebrity deaths, and a lot of other things I never thought I’d be a part of covering. In addition I’ve designed and installed a routing system for the White House, designed fiber and HD infrastructure for the Capitol and Pentagon sites, as well as taken the lead on various integration projects and HD upgrades that I have been privileged to work on.

*Deep breath* 10 years and kicking, and thus a career was born. So what’s next? Who knows. I want to take a quick second to thank Jonny Goldstein, Meg Fowler, Chris Brogan, Jill Foster, Jim Long, DC Media Makers, and everyone in the DC Media Scene as well as those that have been kind enough to comment and/or lead me in the right direction with social media. It was that missing spark in my current career that social media has lent me that seems to be leading me in the right direction with every blog post and every episode of Jonny’s Partay. I hope that I can find some way to incorporate my passion for social media and community building into my repertoire. I want to find a way to use my creativity and passion for film and video, my passion for writing, along with all of the technical experience I’ve gained over the last 10 years to do something great. I don’t know what it is yet – but I’ll let you all know when I do. Thanks for reading. Looking forward to many more -versary’s, whether it’s a Televersary or not is yet to be told.